This week, Bitcoin mining brought interesting news for the sector, among which the new increase in difficulty stands out.
Bitcoin mining has brought highly relevant news in the last 7 days, highlighting the collection of mining companies in Russia and the increase in the difficulty of the network. Despite the uncertainty generated by the ups and downs in the price of Bitcoin, the mining sector continues to be a fundamental pillar in the crypto ecosystem.
Below, are the five most outstanding news of the week in the field of Bitcoin mining.
New All-Time Peak in Network Difficulty
As expected, Bitcoin mining difficulty reached a new all-time high, despite challenging conditions facing the industry and the broader crypto market. Last Wednesday, the network difficulty experienced its most recent automatic adjustment at block 794.304, marking the third consecutive increase in complexity with an ATH.
Btc.com calculates that the next adjustment, which will take place in a little over a week, will also be an ATH. In this sense, it would be a growth of 1.18% that would leave the difficulty very close to 53 T.
Russian Miners Generated $4 Billion Annual Revenue
The Bitcoin mining sector brought a total equivalent of $4 billion to local Russian companies. This was announced by the country’s finance ministry during the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.
The representative of that portfolio in the forum, Ivan Chebeskov, quoted in specialized media, added that the taxes collected from the sector contributed $240 million to the budget.
Be that as it may, the business remains active in the country, and dozens of companies take advantage of the favorable conditions for their operations. Among these conditions, the low cost of energy, the low temperatures and the friendly policies of the authorities stand out.
Alert Issued by Marathon Digital
The Bitcoin mining company, Marathon, launched a recent alert about fraudulent activities. In particular, scammers would be taking advantage of the company’s name to offer mining services to private investors.
The directive asks people who have these types of agreements with fraudulent representatives to contact the authorities. In the statement, the mining company assures that it is in active cooperation with the authorities to provide all the necessary information.
Blockstream ASIC launch in 2024
Blockstream has announced a tentative date for its long-awaited Bitcoin mining machine. Therefore, the ASIC will be released during the second half of 2024 in an attempt to capitalize on the high demand for equipment after the halving.
The original launch date for this miner was 2022. Now, the company seems ready to bring its equipment to market, according to its CEO, Adam Back.
Bitmain S19 Teams Dominate the Hashrate
The global hash power of Bitcoin mining is led by Bitmain’s S19 teams. These are powerful machines capable of mining cryptocurrencies with considerable computing power, some of them up to 150 TH/s. This high hashrate allows them to be the fundamental piece in the world hash of that cryptocurrency.
Three models of this series encompass no less than 76% of all the computing power of the network of the most important digital currency. The Antminer S19j model alone is equivalent to 34.3% of the global hashrate, notes the report. In parallel, the S19 and S19 XP make up 28.1% and 13.7% in the same respective order.
By Audy Castaneda
